Thank you Netgalley, Betty Rowlands and Bookouture for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Commonly referred to as a cosy mystery, Betty Rowlands new book focuses on Melissa Craig and the bizarre circumstances in which she's caught up in.

As the #8 book in the Melissa Craig Mystery Series, it certainly doesn't disappoint, and although it can be read as a standalone, the story is at its best when read after the previous books.

I found the plot interesting, and the title straightforward.
The front cover, however, was rather bland.
It wouldn't have hurt to make the cover a bit more intriguing or attractive.
The language used in the book was also quite old-fashioned, although that could be because it isn't aimed for my age.

In the end, the book wasn't interesting enough for me to finish it in one day, as I typically do, although the ending was rather enjoyable.

This is definitely a book for those who prefer murder mysteries to be more peaceful in contrast to the usual gruesome horror stories.
I would also recommend this book to readers that love the classics, as they both have a similar type of writing and vibe.

Another fun cosy mystery from Betty Rowlands.As always it focuses on Ms Craig being caught up with another murder, this time the body of a young girl is found in a freezer which was being sent to the dump, but who put her there ? It’s a question that Melissa can’t help but become involved in, as well as trying to write her next novel, dealing with her neighbour leaving and having troubles with her love life. The poor lady really needs a break.

Yet again the author brings us a great read with this, book 8 in the series. It can be read as a stand-alone but I’d advise reading the series in order as you then get the back story of the characters.

This book brings Melissa Craig close to danger once again as she finds herself becoming involved in something which, ultimately, leads her to make a life changing decision. It also means the end of a lovely friendship which has built up over the previous books.

I was shocked with how this book ended but I had already guessed who the perpetrator was before the author revealed it.

This was a lovely easy read and perfect for those who love murder mystery stories. Many thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for providing a copy.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another fabulous book in the Melissa Craig Mystery series. Once again we got to spend time with Melissa, her friend Iris and boyfriend Ken Harris.

When a body is found in a stolen and abandoned freezer in Melissa's village, she wonders if one of her upstanding neighbours is involved. Once again Melissa is buried deep with work on her new novel when one of her neighbours arrives at her door complaining about an old freezer of theirs that had been stolen. After the shocking news of a body being found in the freezer and an appeal for help with her identity, Melissa takes the case on with more serious meddling.

Once she figures out who the girl is and visits her family, she sets off to find out more about the girl and her movements in the village selling lace from door to door.

Following what she feels to be a crucial lead, Melissa finds that she might have fallen into a trap. If her meddling doesn't get her killed, she will need to make a decision about her relationship with Ken Harris and what will happen with Iris's cottage when she moves to France with her soon to be husband.

Mel does it again. She gets involved in murder mystery. Interesting characters and the plot has lots of twists. This will keep you guessing as to who Did it. Then there's the question of living together that keeps her on edge.

Pompous neighbour Major Dudley Ford complaints to crime writer Melissa Craig that an old freezer he'd left out for council collection had been stolen. It turns up in Langley Woods 15 miles away with the body of a young woman inside.

Mel becomes embroiled in yet another mystery - who is the young woman, and how did she get there?

A great addition to the series

I read my first Betty Rowlands last week and now I am hooked! it is a rather addictive type of cozy and I will be sad when I cant get any more!

A local couple are vociferous when they find out that the old, broken down freezer that they put out for Council pick up has been nicked. Why they should be so angry only they will understand. They are even more angry when they discover that the murdered body of a girl is found in the dilapidated freezer. Slowly unraveling the mystery is Melissa Craig our own mystery murder writer and always looking for new copy to the annoyance of her boyfriend Ken former Police.

The setting is idyllic. We have a Cotswold village, all the usual characters and ongoing with the murder and solving the crime is Melissa's own personal life and how it is going to turn out. Her friend who owns the adjoining cottage has decided to move to Provence and get married and wants to know within a week what Melissa's idea is about buying her out and then we have her partner Ken also pressurizing her to decide on how they could make their partnership more permanent.

Hannah Rose our victim is from a colony of travelling gypsies. They are furious with the man who took her away and who is hence responsible for her death and they want to mete out their own form of justice to him. Hannah also took a ride to Hungary with a truck driver in the area and all signs point out to Rocky as the most likely suspect responsible for Hannah's death.

Like all village murder settings, the suspect and the actual murderer are two completely opposite characters. You'll be kept guessing till the end.

Another murder shakes the peaceful and idyllic village of Cotswold.

The body of a gypsy girl is found in the stolen freezer of one of the haughty residents of the village.
Nobody seems to know the identity of the victim, but most of the residents have seen her trudging the streets with her tote bag, going door to door and trying to sell her hand-made lace-work.

Who is the victim? Why did she have to die? Is the culprit an outsider or is there a murderer living in this peaceful village, hiding behind the walls of a warm and cozy cottage?

Melissa Craig, who is a crime writer, is naturally and inevitably drawn towards the mystery and is determined to solve it and lay the idle gossips to rest.

Thanks to the author, Bookouture and the NetGalley for my copy.

**I chose to read this book of my own accord and all opinions in this review are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC. ***

I am a huge fan of the Melissa Craig mystery series, and this, the 8th book in the series, did not disappoint!
Mel is back, along with her neighbour Iris,the now retired Chief Inspector Ken Harris, the ever instigating reporter Bruce Ingram, and all the different inhabitants and characters of the small village they reside in.
The village boor, Major Ford, is up in arms over the theft of an old freezer he had left for trash pickup, but had disappeared before the trash men could take it away. Things only get worse when the freezer is discovered miles away with the body of a young woman in it! Mel, of course, can't resist getting involved, and is soon being pulled in many directions by the mystery, her work, and her personal life! Where Mel goes, danger and death always seem to follow, to the consternation of Ken Harris and Iris.
This was the most exciting and best book of the series in my opinion! Well written, interesting characters and an exciting plot.
Highly recommend!

I'm getting through these Mel Craig mysteries at the moment, up to book eight already with book nine ready to go next. Like the previous books in the series, these are classic mysteries with a who done it to solve.
This time Mel finds herself drawn into the case after the disappearance of an old freezer from the house of a fellow resident of her village. To begin with, she thinks nothing of it, but when the freezer turns up twenty miles away complete with a dead body inside. Mel being Mel, she can't resist but find out what has happened and with the help of journalist Bruce, she begins to investigate further.
In the previous books, Mel has been involved in a relationship with ex-policeman Ken. She's kept him very much at arm's length and now he's pushing for more commitment. The main problem is that he doesn't like her getting involved in the investigations that she seems to find herself in the middle of.
The end of the book resulted in some changes or coming changes in Mel's life. I don't know yet what this will mean for some of the characters who have been regular so far. I am looking forward to finding out and seeing what mystery Mel gets involved in next.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I am absolutely loving this series of Melissa Craig mystery's and as soon as they are downloaded they are read avidly..... this one does have an ending that is slightly sad but there must be a reason as to why. Melissa once again is engaged through no fault of her own in the murder of a young lady who was trying to find her feet in the world but as usual although she tries her hardest to stay out the crime solving she is yet again drawn in

An absolute must read 5 stars

I am happy to say the series continues to be good value. In this showing, Mel faces a difficult personal choice. I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just say I was surprised by this occurrence. I am happy to see that Mel isn’t stagnating, but is continuing to grow and evolve. I was happy to see her back in the throes of investigating with her reporter friend, although sometimes I don’t think she stops to consider that she us investigating murderers, sometimes I want to shake her and say use your commonsense! Beware!
Many thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC, all opinions are my own. I highly recommend this series.

A great story line with brilliant main characters.. I read this book in one sitting as I couldn't put it down.

The eighth in the Melissa Craig series where a body of a Romany girl is found in an old freezer in Langley Woods. Melissa tries to help the girl's family while trying to unravel the mystery of the girl's death. Her private life is confusing her as she has promised to give Ken Harris an answer to his proposal .
This book gives another good story with lots of twists and turns which keeps you looking forward to the next in the series.

This is book #8 of the Melissa Craig mysteries. Whilst it can be read as a standalone, I would recommend reading these in order. This book has previously been titled The Cherry Pickers but has been recently revamped with a new title and cover by the Publishers, Bookouture.

We are now 8 books into the series, but for those who have never read any of these books before it’s wise to warn you that these books are written under a genre called ‘Cosy Mysteries’! In other words, they are crime books but with a much more sedate and gentler pace! There’s not much blood and gore, but instead plenty of sleuthing and mystery – much like Agatha Christie and MC Beaton type novels! That doesn’t mean that they are any less full of murders and crime, just more like a good old fashioned whodunit!!

Melissa Craig is the amateur sleuth/professional author and the main character of this series of books! She’s always on the hunt for a good story for inspiration for her crime novels, but instead always seems to find herself smack bang in the middle of a real life murder. I love Melissa’s character and have pictures in mind of some ‘Miss Marple’ type character, although I would hope that Melissa is a lot more glamourous than that (no disrespect to Miss Marple of course!!). In this book, Melissa resorts to her amateur detective work when a young woman’s body is found hidden in a freezer which has been dumped in the local woods, but nobody within Melissa’s village is coming forward to identify her. Surely someone from the Village must know who she is, and Melissa makes it her job to find out no matter what danger she puts herself in.

What I do love about Melissa is that she is always convinced that the police have got it wrong, which I would imagine causes much huffing and puffing amongst the local constabulary. Annoyingly for them though, Melissa is usually right and after 8 books in I do often wonder why they don’t just give her a job! As usual for this series of books, the storyline moves at a swift pace and held my attention throughout the book. There are plenty of additional characters to give you food for thought as to who might be the killer, and I was kept on tenterhooks a good way through the book before discovering who it was! This was another wonderful read in this series of books which hasn’t, despite being so far into a series, lost its interest or appeal! An easy read, ideal for a cold winter’s evening! Bring on book number 9!!

This is the 8th book in the series but could be read as a standalone. I'd recommend reading the previous ones because them you get to know the characters really well.

The books were first published in the 90s and so sometimes are a little dated however overall they are an enjoyable read.

I really like this series and hope to read more in the future.

Another great story! Unexpected ending, love the way the characters come alive and loving the way Mels character is developing!

The Melissa Craig series of books are some of my favourites,  they are like visiting old friends and catching up with their latest adventures. This time the crime begins in Mel's small village, but moves out into the surrounding area where, once again, Ms Rowland shows her love for the Cotswolds in the detail of her description.

These novels improve with each new story; the characters are now well rounded and familiar, the stories multi-layered and the culprit/s more elusive than ever. This time the main murder mystery was linked with a subject even more relevant today than when this book was first published, that of violence against women in many of its guises. For a cosy mystery there was a large amount of reasonably graphic detail of attacks on two of the characters which surprised me. I think however, that as each storyline improves and emphasises the craft of the author it should be expected that the cosiness of the first few novels has disappeared to be replaced by a more realistic view of the world whether that is in this instance the larger towns or small villages of the Cotswolds.

There are prospective life-changing decisions to be made by the main characters which had me cheering and despairing in equal measure. Most of these have now been resolved at least partially and I am looking forward to seeing how they move forward in the next novel.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to Netgalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review and would recommend it highly. The addition of the more graphic scenes may put some people off but although I think the book would have worked just as well without some of them the storyline demanded more than a brief sanitised glimpse into the lives of those involved on both sides of the story and overall was better because of them.

Have not read this author before, however, I would describe this story as a Cosy Mystery, and it starts in a village setting where everybody knows everybody and there is always a hoity-toity couple who people try to avoid, however, this poor soul had put his broken freezer out for the rubbish collectors when it goes missing and turns up later complete with body in tow. Melissa single moved to the village and throws herself into village life, she is a writer of Mystery novels so this is right up her street and embarks with fellow reporter ex-copper to nose around. Melissa does have a boyfriend of such an ex-cop come P.I who is not happy about her meddling to the point of controlling so that gets up her back, so there is a bit of animosity going on there. The outline of the village is idyllic and peaceful just the setting of a good murder mystery but I felt it was lacking in the depth on the murder itself, and the culprits that was first arrested not much was said who they were and why the police apprehended them in the first place and the end was a bit abrupt, yes explanations but cut off in its prime. Shame although I do prefer something with a bit more thriller to it, for a holiday read or something not too taxing this is about right., but no such action.to it.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Had a binge read of Series 6, 7 and 8 of the Melissa Craig series and now have withdrawal symptoms. Great read